Emotional Intelligence Leadership

Jennifer Cheavens, PhD and assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University is doing very interesting work on hope.  This makes me more hopeful than I already am…especially for leaders and their teams. Dr. Cheavens asserts that research has shown that those of us with lots of hope do very well in life in all sorts of areas. Prior to knowing this, that was my sense, but now there’s evidence.

Dr Cheavens and her colleagues differentiate hope from optimism; they define hope as goal-oriented thinking. It is therefore active. There are two components, pathways and agency. “Pathways thinking reflects your ability to come up with lots of different ways to get what you want in the future. Agency is the amount of energy, will or motivation you bring to those routes.” A person can be high in both pathways and agency, low in one or the other or low in both.

Stated this way, hope sounds like creative problem-solving to meet a goal, the very actions required of leaders and their teams to achieve business results. And an excellent tie-back to self awareness and emotional intelligence (EI).

Noting this, it may be useful for leaders and the individuals on their teams to consider where they are on the hope scale. And if needed, work to move one’s placement further up the scale.

Dr, Cheavens recommends asking these three questions which will give you an idea of where you are on the hope scale:

-Do I believe I can get the things I want in my life?
-Do I think I can come up with ways to get what I want?
-Do I think those ways are things I can actually do?

For a leader and a workplace team, the questions might be something like the following:

-Do we believe we can get the things we want in this project/assignment?
-Do we think we can come up with ways to get what we want?
-Do we think those ways are things we can actually do?

How do you increase hope? Dr. Cheavens suggests articulating very specific goals, and to move toward a goal rather than away from a problem, as that is more energizing. These apply to an individual on a personal level and in the professional arena. Use positive self-talk and good self-care. Good advice in any situation. Generate lots of pathways to reach the goal. This is brainstorming, a familiar tool to leaders and teams. Visually make a map of “I am/we are here” as a starting point with the goal on the other end and include the pathways and obstacles. Ramp-up support, find advocates and allies. Again, this makes good sense in the personal and professional spheres.

Now that there is evidence that hope really can make a difference, I am hopeful that leaders and teams take action to increase their hope.

How hopeful are you?

http://www.more.com/2024/7577-a-plan-to-make-your

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Two of the most important leadership lessons I learned happened early in my work life in my days in NYC. I watched a manager undo more than 35 years of experience by being overly sure of himself and unwilling to change with the times. His career derailed and ended as a result.

OK, so don’t be overconfident and don’t fail to adapt. Not so hard, right? You may think you are immune to either of these. And perhaps you are among those who are.

But consider Malcolm Gladwell’s article in The New Yorker (http://www.gladwell.com/2009/2009_07_27_a_cocksure.html) where he writes about overconfidence and the downfall of Bear Sterns. By no means is it just those in finance world that are at risk. Apparently, as we age and with more experience, we tend to overestimate the accuracy of our judgments. This is even more true when “…the task before us is difficult and when we’re involved with something of great personal importance.” The line between what we can control and what we can’t gets grayer.

Of course there are times when overconfidence disguised as excessive optimism can be helpful. But business and organizational results are at risk, not to mention the well being of the individuals who make up those organizations.

Leaders need to be very mindful of falling into the trap of overconfidence. One way to do that is to always be on the lookout to adapt as necessary. Do not solely rely on what has worked in the past. Too often leaders blindly repeat what has built the bottom line and brought them success so far.

Equally critical is self-awareness and being able to trust your team to offer diverse views for serious consideration. It takes a grounded leader to ask for input especially when it’s a different perspective. And it takes trust for those the leader is asking to provide honest opinions and feedback.

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I now know what it feels like to use the oxygen mask on an airplane while the plane is rapidly descending much too soon to be arriving at our destination. Scary.

A split second that seemed like minutes passed before I grabbed my mask as I had seen so many times in the safety presentation.

A four year old boy didn’t want to keep his mask on. He was crying, desperately pushing his mom away as she tried her best to stay calm, talk with her mask on and get him to put his mask back on and keep it on. Two passengers leaned in and over to assist doing their best to help. After several tense minutes, the boy complied.

With little information about what the problem was, we sat there, strapped in tightly, trying with some difficulty to breathe slowly as reminded by the flight attendant. We checked on our seat mates.

After a safe landing in a small airport in Colorado we were diverted to, we laughed with relief and applauded loudly, grateful. We bonded with people who a few minutes earlier were nameless strangers. We helped each other off, thanking the crew for getting us down in one piece.

Flight 4440 from Salt Lake to Houston had a semi-serious cabin pressure problem last night.

Once we were in the terminal, waiting for instructions and after calling family to assure them all was OK, my next thoughts were “how could I have been better prepared? and “what do I need to do to prepare my family for an emergency like this?”

Personally, I will be much more conscious about knowing what to do, each step. And I thought I was pretty good about paying attention to the safety presentation.  As a family, we’re going to discuss what it’s like to be in the chaos (it’s not easy to stay logical), to expect the rush of adrenaline and what to do in those precious moments. We’re going to talk about the meaning of an emergency, how to listen (not easy when you’re feeling panicked) and we’re going to practice what to do.

Hopefully, we’ll never be tested, but if we are, we’re prepared as best as we can be.

If you fly, be prepared and be conscious about what you may need to do.

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Grüße aus Berlin!

We are visiting family in Berlin, Germany as our nephew was born on June 27.

He is a lovely reminder that our actions (or in-actions) are part of our leadership legacy. And that whatever we choose to do sets an example and influences others through our human connections and relationships.

Here’s to the celebration of life!

Cheers and aloha,

Alison Zecha

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Too often I meet leaders who have the view that being successful and getting business results is primarily about being task oriented.

I disagree.

Being successful in getting business results is combining all the elements of Emotional Intelligence with focusing on achieving the business goals and objectives. Today, being a leader means paying attention and putting energy and effort into relationships and nurturing relationship management. By now I hope you recognize that even though you may want to do everything yourself, it just is not possible. That’s where relationships matter. If you hope to accomplish all the priorities, you need to collaborate with those in your team and influence them in a positive way to meet those demands.

In order to do this, think about how much of your effort as a leader is on relationships. How much emphasis do you put on tasks? Rough numbers, I say you should spend 70% give or take a little on relationship building and maintaining those relationships.

How do you start spending 70% of your energy on relationships? Start with learning about EI and yourself. Then once you have an idea about where your EI competencies are, you can develop a plan to strengthen and refine them.

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Alice Trexler, Associate Professor and Director of Dance, at Tufts University was a very influential leader in my life. I don’t know if she realizes the hugely positive influence she had on me, my thinking about the world in many respects and my outlook on life. In fact, I don’t think I fully realized this myself until I read today in the NY Times about Merce Cunninham, the choreographer, passing away on Sunday.

Merce Cunningham was a leader. Not only in the world of dance and the arts, but in a much larger context as he explored and experimented with ideas beyond the then-accepted boundaries.

Alice introduced me to Merce Cunningham and his work while I was a student at Tufts. I was quickly taken-in by what he pursued and embraced:  experimentation,“But” and “What if?” questions about what dance and choreography are or could be, pedestrian movement and its place in dance, independence, ambiguity and humor, dance as the expression of the nature of change itself, “…he showed how people can be intensely involved and isolated at the same time in a relationship, both cooperating and independent.”

All of these concepts and elements are somehow intertwined into my leadership and emotional intelligence work today.

“You have to love dancing to stick to it,” Cunningham once wrote. “It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive.”

With gratitude and aloha to Alice Trexler and Merce Cunningham, leaders.

Alison Zecha

NY Times article http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/arts/dance/28cunningham.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hp

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